Shadowrun Returns - Review Roundup #1

For those who just want to relive the isometric action of the SNES and Megadrive days, Shadowrun Returns easily delivers. It's not the deepest or most flexible game of its type, but there's a lot to be said for simple ideas realised intuitively. Add in some excellent writing and, judged purely as a standalone game, it's an unambiguous success.

There's more to Shadowrun Returns though. Much more. And it won't be until the community gets its hands on the editor, starts remixing the current material and generating its own, that the game will really begin to blossom. When it does, the patience of the hardcore will be well rewarded.

Shadowrun Returns is a great comeback for the old franchise and proves that there's a lot of life left in it. While it only features a single story at launch, the promise of more from developer Harebrained Schemes and the possibility of getting new campaigns from players themselves via the editor makes the game an investment over time.

The title is a tough experience for newcomers but, provided they keep at it and continue to explore the many complex mechanics, it's quite rewarding, especially for those who enjoyed the comebacks of other franchises like Fallout or XCOM in recent years.

Despite the strange omissions and Shadowrun Returns' habitual blinking in the face of bigger gameplay ambitions, it's still an engaging return to a world and fiction that's sat dormant for far too long. Shadowrun is still a singular take on a pair of genres that have been drowned by cliche elsewhere, and it's exciting to consider where the game can go from here. Here's hoping that Harebrained is willing to go a little further down the rabbit hole if they do.

Even with the few flaws it possesses, Hairbrained Schemes have knocked it out of the park with Shadowrun Returns. This is one of the most satisfying and complete tactical roleplaying experiences to come out of 2013 and realistically the last few years. It’s strong in narration, sporting one of the best scripts we’ve seen in a long time, rich in customization and solid in its combat sophistication.

Shadowrun Returns is a fine little turn based RPG and a standard that all Kickstarter games should look to aim for or beat. With the probable challenges that they faced, it’s amazing the game is this solid through and through. Sit yourself down, you drek and null sweat chummer as you jack in, because this game is wiz.

One of the biggest and most ambitious additions to this game is allowing the community to create User Generated Content to ensure the game has tons of DLC beyond what Harebrained Schemes has planned for the future. There’s already some content for the community to enjoy starting launch day.

Thanks to all the Kickstarter backers for helping make this project a huge success and great revival for the series. A lot of gamers that still have a bad taste in their mouth from the Cross-Play Shadowrun that was made for PC and Xbox 360 need to play this game. It’s a true revival of Shadowrun and the perfect HD upgrade that the series needed with a soundtrack that takes you back in time.